Viscous Flow Analysis using Boundary Elements Method

In this research, applications of the Boundary Element Method to viscous flow are investigated. The BEM formulation allows a boundary-only solution for linear stokes flow. For higher speed flows in which the non-linear convective effects cannot be ignored, a volume integral must be retained. The proposed formulation is based on analogy between Navier’s equations in elastostatics and Navier-Stokes equations expressed by using a penalty function. By using penalty function formulation, pressure term is eliminated and Navier-Stokes equations are converted to Navier equations in elastostatics. In many previous works, potential fundamental solution was used for solving viscous fluid flow with BEM but in this research elastostatics fundamental solution is used. Finally, some two-dimensional examples are provided to validate the presented approach. It is found that the boundary element method gives accurate solutions and it is more economical than other methods since the application of the method requires discretization only on the boundaries of the domain and thus it reduces the spatial dimensions of the problem by one.